Slovenian Trade Unions File Referendum Motion on Budget

Dec. 12 (Bloomberg) -- Slovenia’s public-sector trade
unions called for a referendum on the budget for the next two
years that will deepen the euro-area nation’s recession.

The education, science and culture trade union of Slovenia
and some 30 other workers’ groups filed a request with the
parliament in Ljubljana to begin the referendum process, Karmen
Uglesic, the legislature’s spokeswoman, said by phone today.
Unions oppose the announced 5 percent public-sector wage cuts.

Other referendums already threaten key legislation in
Slovenia, including on a bank-recapitalization plan and the
creation of a wealth fund. Slovenia, mired in its second slump
in three years, is struggling to avoid an international bailout
amid government austerity measures to overhaul the economy.

The government will ask the Constitutional Court not to
approve the budget referendum, Finance Minister Janez Sustersic
said before the motion was filed. If the vote goes ahead, the
2013 budget will be suspended and operate on a month-by-month
basis, he said.

“Agriculture, the environment, transport and health will
suffer the most” if the plebiscite takes place, Sustersic said
to state council members in Ljubljana today.

Parliament Speaker Gregor Virant will now call a 30-day
period, during which unions must collect 40,000 signatures for
the referendum to proceed.

Under the budget passed by lawmakers on Dec. 6, a cut in
public-sector wages will help narrow the fiscal shortfall to
within the European Union limit in 2013. The Adriatic country
predicts a budget gap of about 4 percent of gross domestic
product this year, which will fall to less than 2.8 percent in
2013, according to Sustersic.